Navajo Bridge

Location

Accessible

Navajo Bridge is a pair of steel spandrel arch bridges that cross the Colorado River near Lee's Ferry in northern Arizona. The newer bridge of the pair carries vehicular traffic on U.S. Route 89A (US 89A) over Marble Canyon between southern Utah and the Arizona Strip, allowing travel into a remote region north of the Colorado River including the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

Prior to completion of the first Navajo Bridge, one of the only Colorado River crossings between Arizona and Utah was located about 5 mi (8.0 km) upstream from the bridge site, at the mouth of Glen Canyon where Lee's Ferry service had operated since 1873. The ferry site had been chosen as the only relatively easy access to the river for both northbound and southbound travellers. By the 1920s, automobile traffic began using the ferry service though it was not considered a safe and reliable crossing as adverse weather and flooding regularly prevented its operation.

The dedication of the original bridge was on June 14–15, 1929 with an official name of the Grand Canyon Bridge. The state legislature changed the name to Navajo Bridge five years later in 1934. The original bridge was closed to vehicular traffic and opened only for pedestrian and equestrian use once the new bridge was opened in 1995.